Bozkir: EU Not In Position to Refuse Turkey's Membership Bid

Minister of EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Volkan Bozkır has claimed that the EU is in need of Turkey with increasing urgency, saying, "The EU does not have the luxury of refusing Turkey's membership." At a reception on Thursday organized by Turkish citizens and academics who study in Washington and at the Turkish embassy there, Bozkır spoke about Turkey's EU bid in a speech and informed participants about laws that have been enacted during the membership process.

Underlining the fact that being a full-member of the EU is among Turkey's strategic purposes, Bozkır said: "We maintain this process within great effort for upgrading our standard of life and going into the future with much better conditions. The EU is in need of Turkey more than ever today. Turkey's need for the EU also increases with each passing day. The balance of this need will eventually be found out and Turkey will become a full member of the EU."

Bozkır also stressed the urgency for more negotiations and seeing the big picture in the process. "Naturally, we have to talk more and enable the EU to see the entire forest rather than the trees. In order to do this, we all exert ourselves. Hopefully we will attain this aim with you."

On the same day, among his contacts in Washington, Bozkır also met with Ed Whitfield and Steve Cohen, co-chairs of Congressional Caucus on U.S.-Turkey Relations and Turkish Americans. After the half-hour meeting Bozkır told the press he was invited to the National Prayer Breakfast on Friday.

About the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), Bozkır said that the false ideas that emerged about Turkey in the U.S. must be removed through better communication between the two sides.

"I will have contacts with the chair of the TTIP and address the German Marshall Fund meeting. Naturally, there are some negative opinions that emerged about Turkey in the United States. In order to eliminate these, we have to talk to each other. In this framework, either as the former chair of the Turkish-American Parliamentary Friendship Group or as the current minister of EU affairs, I have meetings with our friends here. Those became very beneficial," Bozkır said. (Daily Sabah, Fatih Isik)